Pirates, Profiles and Policy Reports!

Last week I had the opportunity to do a quality check of the 2013 NASFAA National Profile with Research Director Gigi Jones before we sent it off to be printed in preparation for the June 27 Student Aid Orientation for Capitol Hill staff. Seeing what goes into producing a document like this was fascinating and I now have an even greater appreciation for all of the reports I have read and will read in the future. In addition to getting the National Profile ready, I sent out invitations for the briefing to congressional staffers who specialize in education. In the upcoming week the policy and federal relations team will meet to review and finalize the presentation I have created and discuss logistics for the briefing. As the RSVPs continue to come in, I am beginning to get more and more excited to see one of my biggest projects come together.

I also assisted Gigi in creating a tracking document to be distributed to schools participating in NASFAA's study on financial aid offices’ burden related to implementing the 150 percent Direct Subsidized Loan limit. We’re hoping to use this data to inform policymakers about what it truly takes for schools to implement this new regulation. The research associated with this project has helped me gain a better understanding of the Department of Education’s new requirements and I am very interested to see the results once we receive the data back from our participating schools in July.

This week I also began tackling my annotated bibliography, focusing on articles related to financial literacy. This bibliography--along with prior interns’ bibliographies--will be posted as a reference on the updated research section of NASFAA.org. This project is very special to me, since my graduate thesis will focus on financial literacy programs.

I took a small bit of time to explore D.C. during my lunch hour one day last week and visited the National Geographic Museum, just a few blocks from our office. The main exhibit, “Real Pirates,” was fascinating and filled with artifacts from the first pirate shipwreck in U.S. waters, but the entire museum is great. Their courtyard was filled with people enjoying their lunch surrounded by permanent exhibits and the exterior of the building showcases pictures and artifacts from around the world. You can see the photos from my visit on my Facebook album on NASFAA’s Facebook page!